The new National Security Law represents a full-scale assault on democratic rights by the Stalinist-Capitalist regime!

 

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 1 July 2020, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

1.             On 30 June, the so-called National Security Law imposed by the Stalinist-Capitalist regime came into effect. This law gives the regime free hand to terrorize and smash any oppositional forces. The new law, in its own words, aims at “preventing, suppressing and imposing punishment for the offences of secession, subversion, organisation and perpetration of terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security in relation to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.” (Article 1) The law considers as “subversion”, among others, any acts aimed at “overthrowing or undermining the basic system of the People’s Republic of China (…); overthrowing the body of central power of the People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; seriously interfering in, disrupting, or undermining the performance of duties and functions in accordance with the law by the body of central power of the People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.” (Article 22) Furthermore, the law considers as “terrorist activities”, among other, “sabotage of means of transport, transport facilities, electric power or gas facilities, or other combustible or explosible facilities; serious interruption or sabotage of electronic control systems for providing and managing public services such as water, electric power, gas, transport, telecommunications and the internet; or other dangerous activities which seriously jeopardise public health, safety or security.” (Article 24) For all these “crimes”, people can face many years of imprisonment. (All quotes are from the official English language transition of the law, published by the state news agency Xinhua, http://www.ecns.cn/news/politics/2020-07-01/detail-ifzxrvxc0874078.shtml)

 

2.             This means that under this new law any organization which openly rejects the Stalinist-capitalist system can be persecuted for “subversion” because it would be “undermining the basic system of the People’s Republic of China”. Likewise, any group which has links to international organizations (like various socialist and trade union associations in Hong Kong) can be accused of “subversion”. Any blockade of public transport or any street blockade can be persecuted as “terrorist activities”. The same is true for holding larger public assemblies which supposedly would “jeopardise public health” as the ruling class in China as we as all over the world claim in times of the global counter-revolutionary COVID-19 hysteria.

 

3.             This law is a full-blown attack on the democracy movement in Hong Kong. It is obvious that the regime tries to smash the opposition with full force. It arrested already 300 people on the first day after the law came into effect. Undoubtedly many more will follow. An editorial of the regime’s mouthpiece Global Times openly boasts that Beijing will be undeterred by mass protests on the streets. “The few die-hard radical forces in Hong Kong should be warned that the national security law could never be overthrown by mobilizing enough people to protest in the streets as they did with the extradition bill last year.” (National security law will be new start for HK: Global Times editorial, 29.6.2020) No one should have any doubt: this is the beginning of the counterrevolution in Hong Kong by which the Stalinist-Capitalist regime hopes to annihilate any opposition! We warned already in the RCIT statement of 24 May that “the whole purpose of [the law] is to provide a legal basis for the regime’s repression apparatus to invade Hong Kong and to brutally crush the pro-democracy popular movement.” In other words, the stakes are very high! For more than one year there have been regular mass demonstrations and occupations of universities by the workers and youth. This has provoked a kind of local dual power situation in Hong Kong. Now the dictatorship wants to finish off this popular uprising with brute force.

 

4.             The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) reiterates its solidarity with the workers and youth of Hong Kong. Naturally, as revolutionaries and socialist we have profound political differences with various bourgeois and petty-bourgeois forces which play a role in this mass movement. Neither do we share the demand of secession of Hong Kong from China which has been raised by a minority within this movement. However, first, the mass movement of the last 12 months has brought millions of people on the streets fighting for the defense of fundamental democratic rights. This movement has never been an artificial product of this or that political party but rather a spontaneous popular uprising. Secondly, revolutionaries oppose the Stalinist-Capitalist dictatorship and defend oppositional forces – irrespective of profound political differences – against its repression.

 

5.             It is urgent that the international workers and popular movement stands up now in solidarity with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Such an international solidarity movement must denounce the repression by the dictatorship. Unsurprisingly, any solidarity with the workers and youth of Hong Kong will be sabotaged and denounced by Stalinist forces and social-imperialist friends of the Beijing regime. This shows once more that any consistent struggle for international socialism must include the struggle against the reactionary influence of Stalinism and pro-Eastern social-imperialism within the workers and popular mass organizations.

 

6.             Such an international solidarity movement must equally oppose any aggression by Western imperialist powers which opportunistically try to utilize the crisis in Hong Kong in order to legitimize sanctions and military threats. Socialists must oppose all imperialist Great Powers (the U.S., China, EU, Russia, Japan). They must not take any side in the global rivalry between the Great Powers. Hence, we reiterate what we said in the last our statement on Hong Kong: “The RCIT calls pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong to place no trust whatsoever in the corrupt and reactionary Trump Administration. Any statement in sympathy for the U.S. or any call for support can only discredit the opposition in the eyes of the popular masses in China and other countries.” Likewise, any international solidarity movement must also reject any anti-Chinese chauvinism of Western rivals.

 

7.             The RCIT calls on activists to join us in building a revolutionary party, both in China and globally, based on an international and socialist perspective!

 

* Defeat the National Security Law!

 

* Down with the Pseudo-“Communist“ Capitalist Dictatorship in Beijing!

 

* Neither Washington nor Beijing! Against all imperialist Great Powers!

 

* For a Workers and Poor Peasants Republic in China! For a Socialist Federation in East Asia as a first step to a socialist world!

 

* Long live the international solidarity of the working class and the oppressed!

 

 

 

International Bureau of the RCIT

 

 

 

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The RCIT has published a number of booklets, statements, and articles on China that can be accessed on our website at https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/ as well as at https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/china-russia-as-imperialist-powers/. In particular we refer to:

 

RCIT: China / Hong Kong: Down with the National Security Law! Organize and mobilize against the looming counter-revolutionary onslaught by the Stalinist-Capitalist regime!, 23 May 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/china-hong-kong-down-with-the-national-security-law/

 

RCIT: China: Solidarity with the General Strike in Hong Kong! For an international solidarity movement as the Stalinist-Capitalist regime in Beijing prepares a brutal crackdown! 01 August 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/solidarity-with-the-general-strike-in-hong-kong/

 

RCIT: China: Solidarity with the Mass Protests in Hubei! Thousands of Chinese workers clash with the police in protest against the state repression under the cover of COVID-19, 28 March 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/china-solidarity-with-the-mass-protests-in-hubei/

 

RCIT: China: Down with the Pseudo-“Communist“ Capitalist Dictatorship! No to any imperialist Great Power – U.S., China, Japan, Russia or the European Union! For a Workers and Poor Peasants Republic! https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/call-to-revolutionary-activists-in-china/

 

Michael Pröbsting: Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Great Power Rivalry. The Factors behind the Accelerating Rivalry between the U.S., China, Russia, EU and Japan. A Critique of the Left’s Analysis and an Outline of the Marxist Perspective, RCIT Books, January 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/anti-imperialism-in-the-age-of-great-power-rivalry/